EJ,

Wow can I remember the tornado that went through Topeka Kansas in 1964 (yes I am way that old & older ...53), I got back there 1 week after the tornado went through Topeka.....4 blocks wide & went through the city from 1 side to the other.

It was ironic because in the past history of Topeka there was a hill called Burnets Mound. A tornado had come through the city & killed many from the indian tribe that lived there. The dead were burried on Burnets Mound with the story that a tornado would never again come through Topeka.

Well Mother Nature had the say had to prove that old indian tales can never be believed. The destruction amazed me. My Grandfather had worked in the Santa Fe building right across the streed from the Capital building. The building had windows that wouldn't open & tar paper was found part inside & part outside the building. They had transome windows above the doors inside the building. Papers that were in desk drawers were found that they had been blown out of the desk, through the inside windows & up to the next story of the building. I saw homes picked up from their foundation & landed in the back yard with only the basement left. I also found 4 x 4's sticking through upstairs windows & pieces of straw/dried grass, sticking through fence posts. Also cars picked up & thrown into trees.

They actually put together a book that I just found in my Mothers home while going through it that photographed all the strange damage that had happened......it was truely amazing. After actually seeing the damage with my own eyes....I was shocked to see how much damage a tornado could do.

However living around where the Northridge earthquake hit in 1994 here in California, i would say that the earthquake damage was much worse than the tornado......but everything that Mother Nature does is completely amazing.

Glad you were safe,
Debbie